Harry's Fourth Year
by Specky Clarke
Summary: My attempt to write a humorous story about Harry's fourth year. This story was actually germinated whilst I was writing the Fifth year. It follows the events in canon but with totally different happenings. More in the A/N before Chapter.1.


**A/N.** The idea for this story actually germinated whilst I was writing 'Harry's fifth year' and found that some of what I was writing required a base that could only be found in the 'Fourth Year' which I started in August 2016. So here we are, I'm not sure I succeeded in my intentions.

None of this is cannon but the time line and happenings follow cannon. I will only hit the highlights and deviations from cannon leaving all you wonderful readers to fill in from memory of the books and your imagination. After all, imagination is what brings a story to life for the reader. I refuse to bore you with extended descriptions of classes and clothes, all of which have been chewed over interminably by fanfic authors. I have less than zero fashion sense anyway.

Further, I personally dislike having to wait sometimes months for a chapter only to find that I have forgotten what went on before and having to re-read the whole story again. I also hate getting to the end of the twenty-something chapter of a really good story just for it to have been abandoned by the author; e.g. The Fifth Element and H.P. and the Curse's Cure and many, many others.

So, I decided that I would not upload my stories until they were finished. Besides, I have gone over the whole story innumerable times and altered/improved/corrected faults. For instance, I wrote the 'Wand Weighing Ceremony' in the middle of writing the third task and have changed certain things substantially, right through the story, including this author's note.

In addition I would not like the feeling of "I _HAVE TO_ write another chapter before the next 'deadline'", or having to apologise due to the inability to write for some reason. I hope you enjoy the story. Despite JKR, I refuse to use September 1st, which could be any day of the week, for them travelling to Hogwarts. Travel the first Saturday of September, reacclimatising, unpacking, sorting out and greeting friends on Sunday, start classes Monday.

Despite being a 71 year old British male and a fanfic reader for years I am a fairly new author with three short stories previous to this one.

I have just realised (I have almost finished this story and am about a third the way through fifth year) that I have shamefully forgotten Crookshanks and even Hedwig to a certain extent. I am sure your imagination can insert them in appropriate places.

Last, I have been reading Fanfic stories for years so some of the ideas in my story could very well be rooted in some other forgotten story that I read ages ago, if so, and you recognise it, thank you for the inspiration.

 **HARRY'S FOURTH YEAR.**

Chapter 1: On the train.

It was the first Saturday in September so Harry, Hermione and Ron were on the train to their fourth year at Hogwarts after the summer holidays. The main topic of conversation was the Quiddich World Cup that they had been to watch with the Weasleys. However, Harry wasn't as happy as Ron, and Hermione noticed, "Harry, are you Ok?" she asked, Ron was still chattering about the match, totally oblivious to Harry's state of mind, or Hermione talking to Harry. "I'm fine Hermione; I just hate being imprisoned in Durskaban every year, although escaping to see the World Cup was great."

The gobshite Malfoy and Goons dropped by and got sent away _again_ with their tails between their legs. He'll never learn.

"Harry I just realised that you don't have Hedwig's cage and come to think of it I didn't see it last year either." Hermione said. "Hedwig can find me or anyone I send mail to." Harry replied. "She is as good as my familiar, actually I think she _IS_ my familiar, she is certainly my friend and I don't believe she would ever leave me, so I scrapped her cage at the beginning of second year after Uncle Vernon trapped her in the cage and put a lock on it all summer. It was also difficult for her to get in and out of, she is two foot long, the cage was about three foot high and difficult for me to manage. She is at the moment somewhere between Little Whinging and Hogwarts. She is basically her own being, doing her own thing. Somehow, she is always there when I need her and I don't understand how."

The train arrived at Hogsmeade soon enough and they were transported to the castle by the carriages pulled by Thestrals. Dumbledore made the grand speech about the Triwizard Tournament replacing the interhouse Quiddich matches, that the other schools would arrive just before Halloween and then the Champions would be chosen by a magical Artefact called the Goblet of Fire. There was, naturally, an uproar about the loss of the Quiddich games ensued and it took Dumbledore some minutes to gain calm. Meanwhile Harry's state of mind had dropped into a pit of despair. Hermione noticed, as usual, "Harry, . . Harry," He looked up at her and she saw that his eyes had the look of someone being led to their death. "What's the matter Harry?" "I just know that somehow I will get involved in this stupidity." He replied. "But there is a restriction on the age of anyone wanting to enter." She stated. "Do you really think that will matter? Especially where I am concerned. I have no wish to be in the balmy contest and certainly no wish for any more fame or fortune."

Ron had been half listening and as usual grabbed the wrong end of the stick, "Shame about the Quiddich but it sounds like a great tournament, you're entering Harry?" he said with a huge stupid grin on his face. "NO Ron, I WILL NOT BE ENTERING." Harry got up and started out of the Great Hall, Hermione quickly followed him. Ron looked very puzzled. Sunday was for everyone to unpack and get reacclimatised to being at Hogwarts again ready for classes to start first thing on Monday.

\- # - -

The other schools arrived and it was suddenly the Halloween feast. Harry was still depressed; mostly due to the memory of his parent's death on this date and he was still expecting to be railroaded into something.

The feast ended and Dumbledore stood, Filch brought the Goblet which had blue flames rising from the inside. "Now is the time to discover the Champions chosen by the Goblet of fire.

The flames turned a reddish gold, a slip of parchment was ejected from the flames and Dumbledore caught it. "The Champion for Durmstrang is Viktor Krum." Applause from the students and staff was very good.

The flames turned a reddish gold, a slip of parchment was ejected from the flames and Dumbledore caught it. "The Champion for Beaubatons is Fleur Delacour." Applause from the students and staff was very good.

The flames turned a reddish gold, a slip of parchment was ejected from the flames and Dumbledore caught it. "The Champion for Hogwarts is Cedric Diggory." Applause from the students and staff was very good.

"Now that we have the Cham . . ." The flames turned a reddish gold again, there was a sudden deathly silence except for a groan from a person sitting about three quarters the way up the Gryphindor table, another slip of parchment was ejected from the flames and Dumbledore caught it. He looked at it for what seemed an eternity and then said "Harry Potter." The silence in the hall was absolutely deafening.

" , would you please join the other Champions in the ante-room." Dumbledore said. "I knew it, I just knew it. Didn't I tell you Hermione? I just knew it." Harry groaned. "Ohh Harry I'm so sorry, but you'd better go and see what can be done." Hermione commiserated.

On the way to the ante-room Harry was in deep thought, but brought out of it by Dumbledore saying "Harry, did you enter your name?" "NO absolutely NOT Professor, I did NOT enter my name." Harry replied. Both Dumbledore's question and Harry's answer were loud enough to be heard by all the silent students in the hall, but Harry could see that there was only one, no, two of those present that believed his answer. The second was signifying her belief by holding her hands against her mouth with her lovely silvery blue eyes wide in horror. Luna, Harry thought, is a lovely person. Just like Hermione. He was really glad that he had resolved the bullying that the members of her house were perpetrating on her early last year. He failed to notice two others that looked troubled. An auburn haired girl in Hufflepuff, and a blonde girl in Slytherin.

Harry had the glimmerings of a plan but could not come to grips with all the nuances of it until he had thought it out and talked to Hermione about it, and maybe Luna. Ron was a loss as he automatically believed Harry had entered his name and was irrationally jealous thinking Harry had kept the way of doing it from himself.

There was the dismissive attitude from Fleur Delacour, the sullen gob from Viktor Krum and the disbelieving frown from Cedric Diggory along with the outbursts from Karkaroff and Maxime and the total non-help from the Ministry officials. Snape managed to give his snide opinion and Harry just waited, answering questions directed to him but not volunteering anything. The upshot was that Harry had to compete as it was a binding Magical contract.

During the following weeks the students displayed how fickle they were by whispering, pointing and not talking to Harry. His only companion was Hermione and occasionally Luna when she could. Harry, Hermione and Luna were getting closer and Luna was ecstatic to have friends. Malfoy made his usual inane comments making his sycophants laugh.

A week before the first task Harry found out that it was Dragons, nesting mothers to be exact. He knew that Fleur and Viktor knew about them but he didn't think Cedric did. He sought Cedric out and told him. Cedric paled at the news but Harry said "Don't worry, I have a plan but I need permission and cooperation from you and the other two. We need to have a meeting, they won't talk to me but could you bring them to an empty classroom? Let me know what time; please believe me Cedric, I DID NOT enter my name." "I believe you Harry. I'll try to arrange things for tomorrow." Cedric stated.

\- # - -

The next day at 6pm, Harry walked to the classroom that Cedric had commandeered for the Champion's meeting, opened the door and went in. Fleur and Krum started to get up to leave but Cedric stopped them, "Harry had nothing to do with entering his name in the Tournament and would like to talk to all three of us, please give him a chance and listen." They settled back down on their desks.

"Thank you Cedric. First I understand your reactions and agree with you that I shouldn't be in this stupid Tournament. I believe that someone has entered me on the orders of Voldemort, who I choose to call Mouldyshorts and anything else that is insulting. Now I think that with the Ministry etc. forcing me to compete it has made the whole tournament into a farce, do you agree?" All three nodded. "OK then, between us we should be able to really make this situation totally farcical and ridiculous along with helping each other out. How about it? We should have a laugh as well." Cedric, Fleur and Krum nodded their heads in agreement. "What about the prize money Harry?" Cedric asked. "If the prize money is important to you then I will give each of you 1,000 galleons at the end irrespective of who wins, I have more than enough in my trust vault, you could even have some of my fame if you wanted it and it was at all possible that I could transfer it to you, I don't want it, although, to me, it doesn't matter who gets the most points; we should go all out to have as much fun as possible." The other three faces suddenly brightened and Krum smiled for the first time since Harry had seen him getting off the Durmstrang ship. Fleur's smile was to die for. Cedric was almost laughing. "Crazy, but I'm all in." He said. "OK," Harry said, "you all know that we are to face Dragons" nods, "well I am a Parselmouth and I have found that as Dragons are basically in the same family as snakes and I can understand them and I think that I can talk to them." Fleur, Krum and Cedric were looking at Harry in incredulous disbelief, "So," Harry continued, "I want you to meet me at the path into the forbidden forest near Hagrid's hut at about 8pm, don't let anyone know what we are doing." They agreed to meet him and they left to go to dinner.

At 8pm the four Champions met at the path into the forbidden forest and Harry led the way to where the Dragons were being kept. It would be impossible to approach the Dragons without the handlers being aware so Harry walked into the area boldly followed by the other three. Seeing the man he wanted he called, "Charlie." Charlie's head whipped round and he stuttered "Harry, Fleur, Viktor, Cedric, what are you doing here? You aren't supposed to know about this."

"Charlie," Harry said, "we have come to the conclusion and agreement that this tournament is a farce due to me being forced to compete, so we want to get some fun out of it." "OK, Harry, what can I do?" Charlie asked. "Let me talk to the Dragons." Harry replied. "WHAT, you must be kidding, they are extremely dangerous, I can't let you get that close." Charlie exclaimed. "And how close do you suppose we'll get in the tournament?" asked Harry. "Merlin! You're right, I'll get the lads." Charlie said. "OK Charlie, but don't get too close and keep your wands hidden, I want to keep a calm atmosphere." Harry said. Ok, Harry you're the boss, please be careful, we'll be ready, just in case."

Harry and the others approached the nearest Dragon, Harry a few meters in the lead. The Dragon looked at them with clear suspicion and anger in her eyes and body language. _"What do you want puny wizard?"_ she growled. " _Great Lady mother, I beg to talk with you and the other three Lady mothers about the situation we all find ourselves in. It would be unseemly to shout all over the place, so with your permission and agreement I would like all of us to gather together so that we can make plans for the approaching farce."_ Her curiosity had been tickled, so she called to the others and got their agreement. _"Very well wizard we will gather together and talk, but we need to be unshackled for this and we also need to keep our eggs warm."_

 _"_ _I will talk to the men who look after you."_ Harry started. _"Look after us! They keep hurting us with their little sticks."_ She growled dangerously. _"Lady mother, they do that out of fear, after all you are a very dangerous being and they do not understand your speech. May I ask your name Lady?"_ Harry asked. _"Our names are not pronounceable by your species. The one with the fire coloured hair calls me Amethyst which I like."_ She replied in a much calmer manner. " _I will call him over and introduce you formally Amethyst, is that OK?"_ she nodded "Charlie, would you come over please and put your wand away." Harry could clearly see Charlie's eyes widen and his hair stand up on end a little. "Ok Harry I sure hope to Merlin that you know what you are doing." "Trust me Charlie, everything is ok." Harry said. Charlie was then standing alongside Harry about 6 feet from the Dragon's head. Smoke was creeping out of her nostrils and Harry could feel Charlie trembling a little. Not that he blamed him. "She tells me you call her Amethyst," Harry said. "Yes, she is a Hungarian Horntail the most dangerous breed of Dragon, but I have taken a liking to her. Wait! She knows I call her Amethyst?" Charlie explained, somewhat calmer now that he had proof that Harry could do what he had claimed. Do they understand English?"

 _"_ _Amethyst, I apologise, I did not introduce myself, my name is Harry and this is Charlie, he is very pleased that you know he calls you Amethyst and would like to know if you can understand English."_ Harry enquired. _"No Harry, we do not naturally understand English but I understood that he called me Amethyst due to repetition."_ She replied _. "Charlie tells me he has taken a great liking to you."_ Harry said. _"Tell Charlie to release my shackles then Harry; and ask him what can be done to keep our eggs warm whilst we talk."_ Amethyst said. She then turned her head back to her eggs, touched them with her nose and gently bathed them in fire from her mouth. Harry took the opportunity to translate to Charlie. She then returned her attention to Harry and Charlie who had called over some of the other handlers.

 _"_ _Amethyst, these are John Oswald, Peter and Arturo; they would be honoured to take turns to guard your eggs and keep them warm. Is wizard fire ok? It wouldn't harm your eggs would it?"_ Harry enquired. Charlie had meanwhile, under close scrutiny from Amethyst, released her shackles and on inspecting her leg where the shackles has been, ran off to the tents, returning with a huge stone pot of ointment. "Tell Amethyst that this ointment is to help the discomfort caused by the shackles and that the shackles will not be used again please Harry." Charlie said already slathering the ointment on her leg. Harry did so and Amethyst replied, _"Harry, thank Charlie for releasing me and also for the ointment, the shackles did irritate a lot and that ointment is really working. No, Harry, Wizard fire will not hurt my eggs. Tell John that they need to be kept at about the temperature that they are at now."_ Harry translated for John and the others and he approached Amethyst's eggs with the other men a little nervously as it is usually fatal to do that. He looked towards the eggs and held a hand out to judge the temperature. Having satisfied himself that he could now do as requested he turned back to look at Harry but found himself staring into the large eye of Amethyst from about 10 inches. His face went as white as a sheet and he froze.

 _"_ _Is he able to do this Harry?!_ Amethyst asked with what Harry could detect as humour in her voice. "John, . . JOHN," Harry shouted, giving John a nudge, "What, what?" John spluttered. "It seems that Dragons have a sense of humour John, she just frightened the socks off you for a laugh." John gathered his wits and bowed to Amethyst. "Please tell her that I am honoured to meet her and it was a good prank." Harry did so, looked around and found Charlie holding his hand over his mouth suppressing laughter and unconsciously leaning against Amethyst's flank. Amethyst bent her neck round to look at Charlie and huffed a cloud of smoke at him. This made Harry and John almost fall over in laughter while Charlie was coughing smoke rings; the other three Champions and the other handlers were also a lot closer and laughing.

Harry introduced the three to Amethyst, they were all in awe of her which was natural. Being close to a six ton, 40 foot long fire breathing Dragon would do that to a person who was no more than 150 pounds and under 6 foot high.

Harry got Charlie to call the other 12 handlers over and introduced them and John, with the other 4 started instructing them on what to do to keep the eggs at the right temperature. Amethyst then took charge and led them all over to the Chinese Fireball. After a short talk about what was happening one of the handlers called Freddie butted in and said "Jasmine is my favourite Dragon harry, would you please introduce me and my mate Claude to her? We would like to be her friends." Harry translated for Jasmine who was delighted with the name Freddie had given her. They removed her shackles and applied the ointment. Jasmine stepped over right next to Freddie and Claude and was obviously very happy with them. The Welsh Green, named Blodwyn was also happy with her name and having Dave and Herbert as her personal handlers/friends. The Norwegian Ridgeback named Astrid was similarly happy with her name and her personal people, Sven and Sean.

It was getting rather dark so they gathered a load of wood, with the Dragons helping, piled it all up and Jasmine set fire to it. All the handlers were ecstatic over what had already transpired as they hated hurting the Dragons in any way. Each pair of personal handlers was sat with their Dragon's head between them all nervousness completely gone. Four of the other handlers taking care of the eggs.

"Right," Harry said, "I am now going to explain to the Dragons what the Tournament is about and my plans to reduce it to the farce that it is. I will then repeat it in English for you." Then he addressed the Dragons and told them the same thing. Harry then told the Dragons all about the Tournament and how he had been railroaded into it. All the Dragons were incensed that younglings were being put into so much danger but were relieved that Harry was a speaker which reduced the danger quite a lot; at least where the Dragons were involved. He then told them his plan for their actions during the first task.

Each of the Champions had a different scenario to follow with whichever Dragon they were paired with. It took a while but everyone was finally happy that they could remember what they were supposed to do.

 **Chapter 2. The first task.**

The four Champions had become good friends and their own friends had joined the group. They had visited the Dragons as much as they could and had become very friendly with them also. They all sat at the same table for meals, be it Gryphindor, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. The Slytherin's at their table made it obvious that they weren't going to put up with mudbloods, halfbreeds or blood traitors at _their_ table. The group completely ignored them and had a good time wherever they went.

They attended the 'Wand weighing Ceremony' and just for a laugh swapped wands. Ollivander looked at Fleur quizzically "This is Mr Potter's wand Miss Delacour, what are you doing with it?" "Oh, excusez-moi Monsieur Ollivander, a moment." She answered with a heavy accent and turned to huddle with the other three and swapped all the wands round haphazardly. Fleur gave a wand to Ollivander who looked at it and said "A Gregorovich?" she grabbed it back and turned to the others again, swapped and turned back "I sink zat thees ees the one Monsieur." Ollivander was looking somewhat frazzled by now. "You _THINK?_ Rosewood with Veela hair; yes, Orchideus." A straggly bunch of flowers shot out of the end of her wand. "Working correctly, thank you."

"Mr Krum," said Ollivander. Viktor grunted, hand 'his' wand over. "This is Mr Diggory's wand!" Olivander's hair was looking a bit electrified and his face was quite flushed. "GIVE ME YOUR OWN WAND." Ollivander shouted. "Wizards and witches should NEVER give their wand to ANYONE else!" Dumbledore, Karkaroff, Maxime and the Ministry goons were looking gobsmacked at the antics of the Champions and Ollivander. Ollivander glared at Viktor as he took his wand, "Gregorovitch, Hornbeam and Dragon Heart string. Avis." And a few really straggly looking canaries flew out of the end of the wand indicating how perturbed Ollivander was. "Working correctly, thank you."

Cedric gave his wand to Ollivander who looked relieved that it was actually Cedric's wand. "Ash, Unicorn hair," and sent some dull looking sparks from the wand.

"Mr Potter please." Harry approached the table, "Yes , what can I do for you?" "Your wand, Mr Potter," Ollivander growled. "Oh yes, I think it's one of these," and held up all four wands. "AARRGGH," Ollivander shouted and ran out of the room. "Mr Ollivander?" Harry called after him, "is something wrong with my wand?"

Rita Skeeter chose that moment to announce her presence and that of Bozo, her cameraman. "My name is Rita Skeeter, reporter extraordinaire of the Daily Prophet. Let's have a few personal interviews." With that she grabbed Harry by the arm and started dragging him towards a cupboard. Harry was saying "No, I don't want to give an interview!" Skeeter suddenly found herself with the glowing tips of three wands pressing into her neck, all belonging to three very angry looking Champions. "Harry said no, Skeeter. Unhand him, now." Fleur said, without a trace of accent. "NOW" repeated Cedric and Viktor. She let Harry go and the Champions all left the room leaving the Heads and other 'dignitaries' open mouthed and wondering what had just happened.

\- # - -

The morning of the first Task found the four Champions at breakfast with their friends around them. Professor Dumbledore approached and looked at them all with a very puzzled expression. "The Task will begin at 11am. Will the Champions please attend at the tent for instruction at that time." They all nodded and went back to their conversations and chuckling. The Headmaster looked _very_ puzzled and walked away. (No apprehension, fear, or any of what would be expected, he thought, what's going on I wonder.)

11am arrived and the four chums walked into the tent to meet Bagman holding a small bag {Pun} which seemed to be wriggling. "Each of you must pick out of this bag the thing that you are going to face today in the Task. You must get past it and take the Golden Egg that contains the clue for the second Task. Good luck." All four snorted in laughter to Bagman's surprise. Fleur pulled out the Chinese Fireball "Jasmine." She whispered with a smile. Cedric got Blodwyn, Viktor got Astrid and Harry of course got what should have been the most dangerous, Amethyst.

They all walked away from Bagman who could tell that he was clearly dismissed turned toward the entrance of the tent looking over his shoulder with a very puzzled expression on his face. ('they are all happy with this and clearly unafraid, what's going on?' he wondered).

They then heard the commotion of the Dragon, Jasmine, the Chinese Fireball, being 'forced' along with her nest to the arena. The crowd was OO'ing and AAH'ing and quite a few let out screams. The noise abated and Fleur was called.

Fleur entered the arena showing great stealth , creeping up behind a boulder. Then she started to sing a strange hauntingly beautiful melody which incidentally had no effect on Jasmine, but she never the less kept up the pretence and started to droop, shooting a few minor fireballs in Fleur's direction, missing her by a few feet. Near enough to look dangerous, {The crowd squeaking and gasping.} but not near enough to burn, near enough however, so that Fleur could feel the heat as agreed. Jasmine acted steadily droopier and after several minutes dramatically fell over in a cloud of dust. No one saw the powerful cushioning charm cast by Fleur under Jasmine or the wink Jasmine gave Fleur. Fleur retrieved the egg and retired to the tent to be fussed over by Madame Pomphrey.

"You are totally unhurt." Poppy said surprised. "How come?" "Madame Pomphrey, calm yourself." Harry told her. "You know that I am a Parselmouth?" she nodded.

By the lack of noise it seemed to be something of an anticlimax for the crowd as Jasmine was returned to her 'enclosure'. But the crowd started to exclaim again as the bellowing Welsh Green, Blodwyn, was being 'dragged' into the arena by splendidly acting handlers shooting all kinds of coloured lights all over the place. The noise abated again and Cedric was called.

Harry continued, "Well it seems that I can talk to Dragons as well and we are all putting on an act for this farce of a tournament." Poppy's face split in a huge grin. "There is no danger?" "Nope." Harry confirmed. She kissed him and did a happy dance, then rushed to the exit to the arena to watch Cedric.

He approached the arena with as much stealth and caution as Fleur did. Blodwyn 'saw' him and shot some flames in his direction. Cedric scampered quickly out of the way shooting coloured lights at her. A few actually hit her and she responded with a flinch and a roar as planned. Cedric then hid behind a boulder and conjured some 'sheep' which ran in front of Blodwyn bleating in fear. Blodwyn grabbed one and shook it like a dog would rat and appeared to eat it and grab another, turning slightly away from Cedric as she did, giving him the opportunity to grab the egg and run from the arena with a following roar from Blodwyn. Again, the sort of anticlimax as Blodwyn was returned to her 'enclosure'.

Astrid, the Norwegian Ridgeback, was battled into the arena with a lot of roaring, harmless flames and a mass of coloured lights. Viktor was called.

Viktor strode out of the tent and as he entered the grounds in front of the arena his sharp seeker eyes caught sight of the other 3 Dragons and all the handlers peering over the edge of the surrounding high ground with large bushes on it to hide behind. He nearly collapsed laughing as they all waved to him.

He entered the arena with as much stealth and care as he could but with his awkward gait, not very well. Astrid feigned to take no notice until he accidentally-on-purpose kicked over a rock and she whipped her head round to 'find' him. Roaring and shooting fire she seemed to be chasing him from boulder to boulder getting closer and closer each time. She was very accurate and careful she didn't hurt him but the crowd was wild with excitement. The beams of coloured light from Cedric's wand were continually hitting her and she was dutifully flinching and roaring at the supposed pain. Viktor got within a dozen feet of the nest and his barrage of 'spells' 'forced' her to turn her head away for long enough for him to run in grab the egg and dodge back behind the boulder on the way back to the tent.

"You Ok Viktor?" asked Poppy. "Yes, Madame Pomphrey, Astrid was very careful not to hurt me."

Astrid was taken out of the arena; again with that curious sense of anticlimax. Amethyst, the Hungarian Horntail was brought to the arena and to the crowd she was the worst of the four. Roaring, shooting flames and hitting everything she could with her 'ball of horns' tail, smashing rocks, knocking stuff over. None of it was of any importance since she was quite careful of what she hit. 12 handlers were surrounding her shooting all sorts of coloured lights and bangs etc..

Harry was called.

Harry made his way carefully to the arena and hissed, " _You ready Amethyst?" "Yes Harry, I'll chase you first, right?"_ she replied. " _Yes, here we go."_ And shot a greenish light at her. She roared and stood in front of her nest shooting flame in his direction, making sure that he was well covered first. Then she ran towards him. The crowd gasped and screamed as this hulking monster chased their Boy-Who-Lived in and out of the boulders roaring and shooting fire all over the place. After several minutes, Harry dived behind a particularly large boulder 'fooling' Amethyst into thinking he had escaped her and she began to search. They were, of course, having a chat while Harry got his breath back. Harry then popped out from a boulder behind her and started casting a huge array of coloured lights all over her back and as arranged she took off, running around her nest with Harry chasing. The circumference of the circle that they were running was only twice that of Amethyst's total length, so that while Harry was hot on her tail shooting sparks and coloured lights, her head was only about ten feet or so behind him. After about 6 circuits Harry was getting out of breath and timing it well, as he got round to facing the crowd, he suddenly stopped. The crowd collectively drew in a deep breath. Harry stopped on a button. Amethyst, being much bigger and heavier, took about fifteen feet or so to come skidding to a halt creating a cloud of dust. The dust cleared slowly to reveal the Dragon sitting on her haunches and her head swinging around on her long neck apparently looking for Harry. Harry, however was bent over with his hands on his knees getting his breath back in between Amethyst's front legs almost touching her belly. The crowd was terrified of breathing out. Harry got his breath back saw where he was, turned and shot an impressive amount of coloured lights and sparks from about six inches into Amethysts belly. She almost seemed to laugh but she converted it into a theatrical groan, shudder and collapse sideways, careful not to land on Harry. He then got the egg and departed the arena to the tumultuous cheering of the crowd.

The handlers, with Charlie in the lead, rushed into the arena to find Amethyst already getting to her feet. They made the now standard performance of leaving the arena.

After Poppy had supposedly had time to check Harry over the Champions were all called out to get their scores. As they arrived in front of the judges box there was a further commotion from the direction of the Dragon enclosures, and all four Dragons came charging down the path towards the arena and the Champions stood in front of it. The crowd screamed, moaned, groaned etc. until Jasmine reached Fleur and snuffled her all over, obviously checking her for damage and then sidled around a really fluffed up Fleur to stand behind her at one side, with her head next to Fleur who put her arm under Jasmine's lower jaw and hugged her head. The other Dragons did the same to the boys, you could actually see their hair being pulled up by the Dragon's intake of breath. Harry was ecstatic that it had all gone to plan without a flaw and grabbed Amethyst's head in a mighty hug. She lifted him off the ground and he scrambled around to sit on the top of her neck holding on to convenient ridges at the back of her head.

The handlers then decided to make an entrance along the path. Laughing and joking. There were four missing however. They were looking after the nests and keeping the eggs hot.

The crowd seemed to be in a stasis of shock, staring at the tableau in wonder. Dumbledore's amplified voice called down, "Harry, can you explain this please?" Harry asked Amethyst to lower her head so that he could speak to Charlie. "Charlie, would you do the spell for louder speech please?" "Sonorous." Charlie intoned, giving Amethyst a loving stroke to her nose.

Harry was raised up and said, "Well, this tournament is a farce due to me being forced to compete. I spoke to Amethyst here and we all came to an agreement that we would make it a bigger farce and take any danger out of it. The Dragons loved it," Amethyst nodded her head; Harry was shaken up and down until he smacked her on the top of her head. _"Sorry Harry."_ She said, and held still. "Gurk, _you know more English than you're letting on, don't you?"_ she nodded a bit again, shaking Harry up and down more. "Gurgle, Oh Merlin." Harry continued, "Anyway; I found that Dragons are not only intelligent they have a great sense of humour and have proved to be brilliant actors. They are a people in their own right."

There was a small voice making a commotion a few rows back from the front. This attracted Harry and Amethyst's attention. There was a small girl of about 9 or 10 years reaching her arms out towards Harry and Amethyst and her mother with a white face holding onto her. Amethyst wandered over and managed to get her head over the parapet by resting her front 'paws' on the wall. The crowd melted away and left the mother and struggling girl stranded. Harry got down onto the seats and went over to them. He knelt down in front of the girl and asked her name. "Rosalina." She said shyly. Harry looked at her mum, "you and Rosalina are quite safe. Come and meet Amethyst, you can see that she wants to meet you." Rosalina's mother got to her feet with Harry's help, he could feel her trembling slightly. "It's OK Amethyst is wonderful, so are the others. Come on." The crowd were watching with huge wide eyes waiting for the plume of super hot flame to incinerate mother and child. Rosalina managed to escape her mother's grasp and ran over to Amethyst's head, grabbing on just like Harry had done before. She scrambled up and sat on the top of Amethyst's neck as Harry had, leaning forward showering Amethyst's head with kisses. Harry was laughing as he and Rosalina's mum (Mary) walked over. Mary was staring in wonder at her daughter perched atop what was feared as a very dangerous beast less than an hour previously. Her hand reached out and touched Amethyst's nose, "Warm." She said. Harry spoke to Amethyst, _"This is Mary and the girl on your head is her daughter Rosalina, take her to meet the others would you."_

Amethyst carefully lowered herself to her four feet with Mary almost freaking out. "Rosalina is as safe as if she was in your arms," Harry told her, "safer even; Amethyst would not let anything happen to her and she has the power to ensure that." Mary calmed and Harry guided her down from the stands to the floor of the contest grounds. They walked over to where Rosalina was chattering non-stop to all four Dragons and three Champions whether they understood or not.

The judges were completely foxed, so they based the scores on the Champion's and the Dragon's acting performances. Fleur got 41 out of 50. Cedric got 42 out of 50. Viktor got 49 out of 50 and Harry got 48 out of 50. All four of them were happy with that and walked off with the Dragons and handlers to where the Dragons were staying. Mary and Rosalina finally departed along with all the other spectators.

 **Chapter 3. After the Task.**

Professor Dumbledore, the judges and the staff all met Harry and company at the Dragon camp. "Harry," he said, "please introduce us all to these magnificent beings; we can no longer call them beasts."

"OK headmaster. Here everyone, pay attention, I won't do this individually, that would just take too long." He also called the four Dragons over and pointed to each as he gave their names. "This is Amethyst, this is Jasmine, this is Astrid and this is Blodwyn. They have chosen their own particular companions from the handlers and are quite happy with the names their companions have given them. Their real names are not understandable by us. Now I will be speaking in Parselmouth to introduce you to them."

Hermione and Luna arrived then, along with the rest of their group, and went straight over to Amethyst who folded her front legs and settled down. The two girls kissed her on the nose and sat on her front legs leaning against Amethyst's chest. "We'll wait here for you Harry." Luna stated and Hermione nodded. The other Champion's friends spread out to their own personal friends and the associated Dragon, obviously very comfortable being so close to these mighty beings. All the adults were looking at them in disbelief.

Now Harry turned to the Dragons and spoke to them in Parsel. " _I have just introduced you by name to the Headmasters and staff of the schools also the few Ministry people that are here."_ Harry now started pointing to each person as he said their name asking them to come forward as he pointed, then move over to one side. _"This is my Headmaster, Professor Albus Dumbledore. This is Professor Olymp Maxime, Headmistress of Beaubatons in France. This is Professor Igor Karkaroff, Headmaster of Durmstrang, I don't know where that is."_ Harry was interrupted by Amethyst, _"Harry, he has Dark Magic about his person; specifically on his left arm." "OK Amethyst I'll discuss it with Dumbledore later, thank you. This is Professor Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts. This is Hagrid,"_ Amethyst interrupted Harry again, _"we know of Hagrid from the one he named Norbert. Hagrid has a special place in our hearts. I took over the raising of Norbert and he is doing well."_ Harry translated that to Hagrid who bawled with tears shooting out of his eyes in happiness. The Dragons looked at him in a bit of shock, he was a half giant wasn't he? Giants don't cry. Blodwyn moved over to Hagrid, sat and put her 'arms' around him. Hagrid responded by putting his arms around her, well, as far around as he could. Hagrid was beyond overjoyed. Harry continued, _"This is Professor Filius Flitwick, Charms teacher. This is Professor Pomona Sprout, Herbology teacher. This is Professor Severus Snape,"_ a growl from Amethyst. Harry held up his hand, she quieted. _"Potions teacher. This is Professor Alastor Moody, DADA,"_ Harry was pushed aside by Amethyst's neck as her head shot out on the end of her neck as she grabbed Moody by his coat and shook him until he dropped his wand and was so disorientated that he couldn't stand. She dropped him and said, _"He is not who he claims to be, he reeks of a substance that changes appearance, he has that same Dark Magic on his left arm and I can sense that he is evil and intends you harm Harry."_ "Polyjuice." Shouted Harry in English, drawing his wand. "Stupefy, Petrificus totalis, Incarcerus." Moody was swiftly unconscious made stiff as a board and bound with ropes from neck to feet.

Amethyst had not disturbed Hermione and Luna with her sudden grabbing of 'Moody' but they were now on their feet with their wands in hand to protect Harry.

"What are you doing Harry," Dumbledore shouted drawing his own wand. "Amethyst tells me that this isn't Moody, has dark magic on his left arm, evil intent towards me and reeks of a shape changing substance Headmaster, I wasn't going to take any chances. I'll apologise if this all turns out wrong. She also detected the same active Dark Magic as is on Snape and Karkaroff's left arms." "They are Ok Harry I will vouch for both. We will wait to see what happens with Moody though." Dumbledore leant down and grabbed Moody's flask, uncorking it and smelling, "Polyjuice I think; Severus?" Snape took a sniff and agreed.

While they waited Harry introduced the minister, Fudge, and the others standing around especially Poppy Pomphrey who was completely entranced with the Dragons and got the closest to them and stroking their noses in awe.

There was a groan and movement from Moody. His body was changing, the false eye fell out and the wooden leg was trying to be pushed out of the bindings so Dumbledore removed the leg and they all watched as the man's eye and real leg grew back, his hair went from straggly grey to a mousey brown colour. "Barty Crouch Jnr." Professor McGonagall shouted in disbelief. "He's supposed to be dead."

"Get the dementors," screamed fudge, "I want him kissed." "Don't you dare, Fudge," said a new voice and Madame Bones strode into the clearing, "we need information. Hello would you please introduce me to your new friends?" The introduction went smoothly with Madame Bones muttering words like wonderful, magnificent etc. and Harry translating to the Dragons who were quite appreciative towards Madame Bones.

Fudge was literally quaking in fear and apprehension.

Amethyst called Harry over. _"Harry, I assume that Madame Bones is the one in charge of the prisoner?" "Yes Amethyst, as the head of the Aurors, she is in charge of what happens to him until he goes to trial." Harry replied. "She is going to question him?"_ she asked. Harry nodded. _"Ask her if she wants me to warm him up to get information out of him."_ Harry looked at her with raised eyebrows, but could somehow see that she was joking.

"Madame Bones," Harry called, "Yes, , what can I do for you?" she enquired. _"_ Amethyst has offered to warm Crouch up to help with your questioning," Harry stated loud enough for all to hear, with a big wink that ne made sure that she was the only one to see, trying to keep the smirk off his face. Crouch was awake and went white at the thought of Dragon fire. Being bound head to foot he could not move much but he tried to, looking like an enormous slug. Amethyst was letting smoke and little flames out of her mouth and nose. Harry could see the enormous effort Madame Bones was exerting not to fall over laughing. "Maybe a little then." She said loudly waving her wand and levitating Crouch over to in front of Amethyst's head.

"AARGH, NO, NO I'll tell you everything, don't let that monster roast me." Crouch screamed and everyone could see liquid dripping out of the bindings closest to the ground. "OK Crouch," Madame Bones said, "spill." So he babbled out the whole plan; that he had entered Harry's name and he was to try to make sure Harry won and got to the cup first as it is a portkey that will transport him to the Dark Wanker's hideout where Harry would be used in a ritual to make a new body for his Master. "I'm dead now," he moaned, "just waiting for him to kill me."

Madame Bones went over to Amethyst with Harry and stroked her nose. "Tell Amethyst thank you Harry, as a prank, it worked better than actual torture. It was a marvellous suggestion of hers." Harry translated it all to Amethyst and noticed Hermione and Luna were just recovering from rolling around on the ground from laughter.

In the sudden quiet, a light snore was heard and looking around found Fleur spread over Jasmine's back on her belly with her legs and arms dangling down the slopes of Jasmine's back, a very undignified pose for a Veela. Jasmine looked as pleased as punch. Madame Maxime looked and said "Leave her, she is safe there, I do not believe Jasmine would allow any harm to come to her."

Crouch was removed to the Auror's maximum security cells and all the adults, Cedric and Viktor gradually dispersed. Harry, Hermione and Luna said good night to the Dragons and wandered back to the Castle in time for Dinner. Ron rushed over to Harry trying to apologise but Harry wasn't really interested at this time, so Ron went away.

The Daily Prophet reported the next day that Bartemious Crouch Senior had died of a heart attack on the news of his supposedly dead son being arrested yet again for various crimes including attempted Murder of Harry Potter.

\- # - -

They had sat down and the food appeared when Fleur came running into the hall looking extremely dishevelled, hair all over the place, robes askew and a smudge on that perfect face that was split with an enormous smile. She spotted the chums and ran over. She sat down next to Harry, who asked "just got off Jasmine, Fleur?" "Oui," she said "I had a lovely sleep." "You know that you look like you've been dragged through a hedge backwards, don't you?" Harry asked. She looked startled, and looked around to see everyone looking back at her. "Oh merde," she exclaimed and drew her wand, circled her head with it and passed it down the front of her body. Suddenly she was back to the perfect image of Fleur Delacour. "Better?" she asked. "I rather liked the look of you as you came in." Harry replied with a smirk. "Oh _you_." She said punching his shoulder. Harry made a great show of looking around in the air. "What are you looking for?" Fleur asked. "The flies must be getting heavier; I could swear one just flew into my shoulder." He replied. "AARGH." Fleur growled and hit him again. "There goes another one." He said. "Humph!" Fleur declared and stuck her nose in the air. But she had a wide smile on her face anyway.

 **Chapter 4. The Ball.**

On the last day of November it was announced that a Yule Ball will take place on the last Saturday of the term. The Champions had to have a partner and they had to dance the first dance before anyone else could join them on the floor. Dancing lessons would be held for any that could not dance and enrolment forms would be posted in the Common rooms this evening.

Harry went pale. Hermione asked what was the matter. "I've got to dance. UURRk" he said. A short while later Viktor approached Harry, "Harry, would it be ok by you if I asked Hermione to the Ball please?" Harry was still looking like he was headed for the scaffold, or Azkaban. "Why ask me Viktor?" "I, and a lot of other people can see that you and she have strong feelings for each other. I would only be asking as a friend and I like Hermione a lot. She doesn't look at me like all the other fan girls." Viktor replied. "As friends, then it's fine. Viktor, how do you ask a girl to go to the Ball?" Harry asked. "Just say it Harry, who do you think you would ask?" Viktor enquired. "Seeing as you're taking Hermione I thought I could ask Luna. I like her a lot and she wouldn't be able to go otherwise."

Viktor looked around and spotted Hermione and Luna not far away and fairly close to each other. "Come on lets go now." he said. "Guurk." Harry said as Viktor dragged him over to the two girls. "Hermione," Viktor called. "Yes Viktor, what can I do for you." She asked. "Would you please allow me to take you to the Ball Hermione?" he enquired, "as friends of course as I have a girl at home." Hermione looked up at him and looked across at Harry, noting Harry's 'deer in the headlights expression. "Yes Viktor, I would be happy to come with you. Do you have a photograph of your girl?" Viktor's smile broadened. "Thank you so much Hermione, and yes I do have a photograph of Natasha." he said, producing said photo. "Go on Harry ask her."

"Burble, greep, umm, Luna wouldyoucometotheballwithme please?" Harry asked eloquently. Luna looked at him with those huge silvery blue eyes. "The Wrackspurts have got him." "What?" Hermione squeaked. "HUH," garbled Harry. "Wrackspurts confuse the brain in these sort of moments. Harry, take a deep breath," he did so, "let it out slowly," he followed her instructions not realising she had hold of his hands as he was looking into those wonderful eyes. "Now, say it again." "Luna, would you come to the ball with me please?" He managed to say almost in a normal voice. "Why yes Harry I would love to." "You're very good at that Luna." Hermione complimented. "Thank you Hermione." Luna said.

"Viktor, Natasha is really lovely," Hermione said, "I would like to write to her if you don't mind." "Yes Hermione that will be fine." Viktor replied.

"Dance lessons, AArgh I need dance lessons." Harry bleated. "We'll all go." Hermione stated. The others nodded.

\- # - -

They entered the classroom that Professor McGonagall was holding the dance lessons in. "First," she said "You need to hold your partner correctly, do that now and stand still; I will come around and correct you." Harry faced Luna and his left hand held her right hand at about shoulder level. His right hand was on the side of her waist and they were about 8 to 10 inches apart. " , how do you expect to guide Miss Lovegood around the dance floor like that? Now, the only way you can do it is for your pelvic bones to be firmly in contact." With that, she pushed Harry's bum in so that Harry and Luna were in full body contact from breast to mid thigh. Harry resembled a bright red lollypop, almost glowing and he tried to reduce the contact. Luna was just smiling.

Professor McGonagall said very firmly "Stay the way I put you . If I put a piece of paper in between you at the start of a dance, I would expect it to still be there after the dance. Now, your left hand is ok but your right hand must be spread across Miss Lovegood's back at waist level with your thumb on her spine pointing upwards and you little finger on her spine pointing downwards, but not uncomfortably spread. You guide her with your hips and you keep your hips in firm contact with the pressure of your right hand. Stand straight, shoulders back, head up. Good, that's about right. Now Mr Potter, take a step forwards, it doesn't matter which leg, due to the contact of your thighs, Miss Lovegood will automatically know and move her corresponding leg backwards. If you move your leg backwards Miss Lovegood will follow to maintain the contact, won't you Miss Lovegood? "Yes Professor." Luna said with a huge smile. To turn, all you have to do is signal with a slight turn of your hips and step forwards. When you do, you will find that your thigh will go between Miss Lovegood's thighs thus making her foot travel backwards at an angle, your other leg sweeps around her other leg, keeping thigh contact, thus making her foot travel to behind the first foot. If you are to turn right you lead with your right foot and vice-versa for the left."

Harry and Luna were trying all this out whilst Professor McGonagall instructed them. "It works," Harry exclaimed. Marvelling that he had not trodden on Luna's toes once. "Yes, Mr Potter," Professor McGonagall stated "If you tried to dance the way you first held Miss Lovegood her toes would be a bloody mess by now and her shins would be severely bruised. People who dance whilst separated like you were at first are NOT dancing together. You will see professional dancers that look separated but they will have practiced their choreographed dancing steps hundreds of times, not without some trodden on toes, and know exactly what the next move is and where every part of their partner is. Beginners MUST maintain the body contact as I have shown. There is no sexual connotation in this so there is no need to be embarrassed. Now practice a few steps to the music, a waltz, timing 1..2.3. A step to each beat."

Harry and Luna managed to move around the floor a little awkwardly but improving all the time. At the end, the Professor and Luna were very pleased with the success of the lesson, Harry was ecstatic. They practiced every chance they could and by the time of the Ball they were quite confident that they would not make a show of themselves. Hermione and Viktor already sort of knew how to dance but with Professor McGonagall's instructions, mostly to Harry and Luna, they found a marked improvement in their dancing.

\- # - -

Harry was waiting with Viktor at the bottom of the Grand Stairs for the girls to join them. Hermione came first and took the boys breath away. Her hair was smooth and flowing down her back, ending in beautiful curls/waves, with pretty combs holding the sides back over her ears which sported simple, elegant dangling Pearl earrings. Her cornflower blue dress snugly fitted her above the waist showing off her developing figure and the skirt dropped to her knees with a slight flare that started at her waist and they could see that there was a fluffy lace petticoat holding the bottom edge of the skirt out about 10 inches from her knees. Her outfit was finished with low heeled shoes that matched her dress in colour. "Hermione, you look absolutely gorgeous." Both boys said at the same time. "Thank you Harry, Viktor, you both look very good also." She responded.

Their attention was brought back to the top of the stairs again as Luna appeared. She looked incredible. Her hair was in a similar style to Hermione's but without the curl and it was like a waterfall of blonde/silver essence. Her pale gold/yellow dress was figure hugging with a loosely flowing skirt to her knees, the flare starting from her hips. She had matching low heeled shoes but she almost seemed to be glowing. To Harry, she WAS glowing. "You look absolutely astounding Luna." Harry choked out. "Thank you so much Harry."

They made their way over to the doors of the Great Hall where Professor McGonagall was gathering the Champions and their dates. "When everyone is in the Hall, you will make your entrance. "Ladies first; Miss Delacour with Mr Davies," who was practically insensible and drooling next to her. "Then in age order, Mr Krum with Miss Granger, Mr Diggory with Miss Chang and Mr Potter with Miss Lovegood last. You walk the length of the Hall and take your places at the table at the top end. After dinner, the tables will be cleared away and you will dance the first dance. After that dance the floor will be opened to everyone. Good luck and enjoy yourselves."

The Champions and their partners made their grand entrance parade up the middle of the Hall and took their seats at the table. Harry heard Ron grumbling and muttering about traitors etc but tuned him out. They ordered their meals and conversed among themselves until the plates and tables were cleared. Dumbledore rose and everyone moved out of the way as the long tables disappeared then small 6 foot diameter tables appeared along the walls along with numerous chairs. "Impressive." Harry commented. "Thank you Harry, but that was mostly the Elves doing." The Headmaster said. Harry and Hermione's estimation of the House Elves rose substantially.

As the evening went on Harry danced with Luna then in mid dance he exchanged partners with Viktor and danced with Hermione. Harry and Viktor also had a few dances with Fleur as Davies was useless. They swapped back and forth enjoying themselves immensely. The end of the Ball arrived and Harry Hermione and Luna walked with Viktor to the Main entrance doors. "I have enjoyed myself and your company very, very much tonight. Thank you so much." Viktor said, bowing over Hermione and Luna's hands giving them both a kiss on the back of the hand.

"We all really enjoyed tonight Viktor." Said Harry and the two girls enthusiastically agreed. Harry and Hermione escorted Luna back to the Ravenclaw entrance and started to say goodnight when Luna stepped up to Harry, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly. "Goodnight Harry, it was a really lovely night." Luna said. Then she turned to Hermione and gave her a kiss too, just as soundly as Harry. Harry was transfixed, still semi stooped in the position that Luna had pulled him into for the kiss. Eyes wide and mouth still slightly puckered. Hermione was startled and Luna said to her "make sure you get a kiss off him too, he's a boy, he won't know what to do or if he's allowed to do it." "I will. Goodnight Luna, my friend." Luna's smile could have lit up the whole castle. Then she disappeared into the Ravenclaw tower. Hermione had to pull on Harry's hand to bring him back to Earth.

Harry walked to the Gryphindor tower with Hermione, still dazed with Luna's kiss. He didn't realise that he was holding Hermione's hand. They got to the fat lady's painting and they could hear voices in the common room through the painting. Hermione turned to Harry, unclasped her hand from his, put her arms around his neck and pulled him into a deep kiss. Harry was transfixed but he put his arms around her waist and held on. "Thank you Harry I've had a marvellous evening and that kiss was very, very nice," she said. "It has been the best evening of my life Hermione, especially the last 20 minutes." Harry responded. "We'd better go in; you have to get ready tomorrow for leaving on Monday so you'd better get to bed it's almost 1am." "Ok Harry," she said, "I'll see you in the morning, goodnight." "Goodnight Hermione." he said, and went to bed with slightly glazed eyes and the biggest smile he had ever had.

The next day most of the students were preparing for the journey home for Christmas. Harry was staying but Hermione and Luna were going home. He was quite sad but he was puzzled. They were friends, right? He had no business thinking of them romantically, right? They were all too young to think like that anyway, right? Yes, right. But. . . . . .

 **A/N.** The way McGonagall taught them how to dance was the way I was taught by a real professional dance instructor. I won medals and was in a formation dancing team, this was in the 1960's.

 **Chapter. 5. New Year and the second task.**

The Christmas holiday in Hogwarts followed the same routine as the previous year. Many hours of loneliness, reading, walking the halls of Hogwarts, the sumptuous Christmas dinner after the momentary pleasure of presents that morning.

The first Saturday of the New Year arrived along with the Hogwarts Express. His friends were arriving. Harry was happier than he had been since he said goodnight to them after the ball.

There they were and suddenly he was being hugged by Hermione and Luna. They split apart after a short while and Ron came and said "Hello Harry, hope you are ok?" "Hello Ron, yes I'm fine, now." Harry replied. "Harry; I'm terribly sorry for the way I was during last term, could we please be friends again?" Ron asked. "Ok Ron, I do need my best mate around; friends." Harry said, offering his hand, and they shook, the 'atmosphere' lightening considerably; but Harry was still a little wary of his 'best mate'.

The term progressed with Harry, Hermione and Ron (sometimes) trying to crack the secret of the egg. Snape was being his usual biased, curmudgeonly, greasy git self, berating Harry and Neville every time he caught sight of them. Malfoy was still being the snide contemptuous cretin that he always was.

Harry, Hermione and Luna had several social meetings with the other Champions and their friends. Ron came occasionally but got bored easily as they all seemed to be interested in talking about Charms, Transfiguration, Potions etc. not Quiddich.

At a meeting in the middle of January Cedric announced that he had broken the secret of the egg. Just immerse it with their head in water. He had transcribed the message so a full discussion was initiated. They reasoned that something, or more probably someone, would be held hostage at the bottom of the lake. Fleur was quite concerned due to the animosity between the Merman and Veela races as she could only think of her sister being important enough to her to be the one taken. Cedric thought it would probably be Cho Chang for him. Harry reasoned that due to the ball it would be Luna for himself and Hermione for Viktor. He also voiced concerns about the depth of the Lake and the effects on the human body. Hermione knew what he meant and would research some facts about it.

Hermione, Luna and Cho all looked apprehensive at this revelation and the group decided to sound out Dumbledore to check on their thoughts. Fleur said she would talk it over with Maxime and her parents afterwards.

The four Champions and the 'intended' vict.. hostages requested an audience with Dumbledore the following day.

They arrived at the Gargoyle at the appropriate time, spoke the password and proceeded up the stairs to his office. "Welcome to you all," Dumbledore said cheerily with the customary twinkle, "what may I do for you?"

Harry had been elected as spokesman so he took a half step forward and said "Headmaster, we have discovered the clue in the egg and have some concerns. We think that someone dear to each of us will be held hostage at the bottom of the lake." Dumbledore's eyes lost their twinkle and it was obvious that he had not thought that they would reason it out so quickly or so accurately. "It's true then," said Harry not letting Dumbledore speak. "Fleur is concerned regarding her sister as she is apparently the only person, other than her parents, that could be deemed irreplaceable for Fleur. The Veela and the Merpeople have not got good relations. They have apparently been almost at war for over a century. Consequentially she fears for the well being of Gabrielle. Hermione, Cho and Luna would like some idea as to how they will be kept alive also. The pressure at the bottom of the lake at over 200 feet is very high at about 103 pounds per square inch and although we are all Magical, we are still human and subject to Decompression Sickness due to going to that depth. We would all like to know the answers to these concerns."

Dumbledore looked a bit gobsmacked and was obviously in deep thought. "I appreciate your coming to me with these concerns. First I would like to know what Decompression Sickness is. Is there a way to demonstrate this pressure, I am afraid that this sort of thing has not been part of my studies."

Harry and Hermione stared at Dumbledore in vast disbelief. "We need a cube of something that would not deform with normal surface pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch, that is the pressure that the atmosphere is exerting on our skin now. Then we need something with the weight of 103 pounds that can be applied to the top of the cube." Dumbledore conjured a 1 inch square cube of something that resembled plastic. Then he conjured a large block of metal and with his Magic held it steady over the cube and lowered it onto the cube. The weight squashed the cube down to about one third of an inch. Dumbledore's eyes widened. "Decompression Sickness," Hermione continued, " is the formation of inert gases in the blood; it is also called the bends and is caused by nitrogen bubbles forming in the bloodstream and tissues of the body. The bubbles occur and expand if you move from deep water towards the surface (where the surrounding pressure is lower) in too short a space of time." Hermione quoted, "It is very painful, the damage caused can be permanent, and it can even be fatal." Dumbledore had gone white with this information.

"Please leave me with this information, I will consult with Madame Pomphrey and whoever we can find in 's with regard to Decompression Sickness. I will talk to the Merpeople's Chief to ensure that Gabrielle will be safe." Dumbledore said.

"Thank you Headmaster, we look forward to your assurances." Harry said and they all trooped out.

Dumbledore found out from one of the chief healers at 's that they all needed to take a specific potion for the hostages and a slightly different one for the Champions due to the relatively different amounts of time they will be in the lake. He had also found that the danger to Gabrielle would have been significant and had negotiated safe passage for both Fleur and Gabrielle. He found the whole group in their room "I thank you from the depths of my being for your information. The second task could have been a disaster of immense proportions." Then he told them of the potions and the negotiated deal with the Merpeople's Chief. "Have you worked out what you are going to do yet?"

Cedric spoke up, "Thank you for that Headmaster. No we haven't worked anything concrete out yet but your news makes things easier to deal with. We won't tell you as it is to be a surprise."

"I look forward in great anticipation to that day then. If there is anything that I can do or clarify, please let me know." Dumbledore said, and left.

\- # - -

Harry had written to Sirius with a list of kit that they would need for the second task and it had arrived three days ago. The champions all had their own kit ready for the task and the day was now upon them. At 8am they were all in the infirmary. The hostages were given the potion and Dumbledore wove the spells that put them into an enchanted sleep and effectively in stasis so that they didn't breathe water in. They were then levitated on stretchers to the shore of the lake and the Merpeople took them under the water.

Two hours later the stands were full and the Champions were preparing for the task in the Medi-Tent. The boys in swimming trunks and Fleur in a one piece swimming costume.

Poppy Pomphrey was the only member of staff with them and she was somewhat excited, being the only person besides the Champions, the hostages and their close group of friends who knew, partially, what was about to happen.

The champions were now helping each other into the kit that Sirius had provided via the Goblins at Gringotts. Fleur's was a rosy pink and she was having trouble getting into the trouser part of the suit, so Poppy called Cedric and Viktor over to her. "I don't really know what these things are but I can see that Fleur needs assistance. Cedric get hold of the top of that leg.. _of the suit, fool._ Viktor the other leg," she said glaring at them. "Now lift, so that her weight helps her slide into it." They did as instructed and Fleur slid into the suit pants nice and snug. Victor's suit was dark red with black side panels, Cedric's was dark yellow and Harry's was emerald, the same colour as his eyes. They all pulled the boots and tops on and zipped them closed, pulled their belts on and checked that all was freely available.

"Madame Pomphrey, these are wet suits, invented by Muggles for swimming in very cold water and the water in that lake is _very_ cold." Harry told her. "Amazing." She said. "Here, take your potions." They did so and then picked up their tanks, masks and flippers and trudged out to the lake shore to the cheers of the crowd. Cheers that faltered and stopped at the sight of four strange looking people coming from the medi-tent, carrying even stranger looking items.

Bagman had announced the Champions but like the crowd faltered into silence. Dumbledore had a grin on his face, expecting something outlandish from Harry and his friends.

The Champions stood on the platform that had been constructed sticking out some 15 feet from the lake shore so that there was about 10 foot of water depth and helped each other on with their tanks, making sure that they were full and the mouth pieces were working correctly. They pulled their hoods up and heaved their flippers onto their feet. They then turned to face the crowd with their backs to the lake. The crowd were murmuring questions and pointing in puzzlement.

Bagman had restarted his brain somewhat and was announcing the start of the task. "The task starts now" and shot a cannon bang into the air with his wand.

The four friends put on their masks, put the mouthpieces in their mouths and then as one; fell backwards into the lake. The crowd gasped and there were some squeaks. The Muggleborn all recognised what the champions were wearing so weren't as incredulous as the purely Magical.

Harry did a 'point me' spell and led the way to the MerVillage. It took them just over twenty minutes to get there and using the diving knives that they had attached to their belts, cut the hostages free and then removed their flippers. They then took what looked like a foot long white board with blunt points at either end off their belts tapped a rune in the middle with their wands and the boards grew to about six foot long. They had all agreed at the last meeting and presented the MerChieftain with the knives in their scabbards along with their belts. They also had sharpening stones in a sheath attached to the scabbard and Harry demonstrated how to use them. The MerChieftain's eyes widened and he bowed to the four Champions in thanks. Harry tried to estimate how many MerPeople there were.

They removed the tanks from their backs and loosely hung them in front so that they could still use the mouthpiece. They each helped the others to fasten the hostages onto their backs in piggy-back fashion with sticking charms, stood on the boards and with a touch of another rune the boards started moving forward. The MerPeople were fascinated by this and followed the champions and hostages. They broke the surface of the lake together and in line, leaping up about 6 feet above the water. The hostages woke up and with waves of various wands were dried, warmed and had impervious charms cast on them to try and keep them dry, they then climbed onto the shoulders of the champions. They had planned what they were going to do but had no chance to practice as it would have given the game away. Harry unshrunk a little boat and they all put their tanks, hoods and flippers in it. The MerPeople indicated that they would push the boat to the shore.

The boards shot off across the lake towards the spectators in close formation and after about 100 feet split apart. The outer two (Cedric and Viktor) making a large circle to each side and the inner two (Harry and Fleur) making a smaller circle each creating a pattern close to a fleur-de-lis. Cedric and Viktor were now side by side back on the original straight part whilst Harry and Fleur were now headed towards each other at right angles to the original straight part. Their speed had increased to about 40mph and to the crowd, it appeared that they were going to meet head on in an almighty crash, so the crowd took in an apprehensive breath. The boards carrying Harry and Fleur with their hostages flashed past each other only a couple of feet apart and about 6 feet in front of Cedric and Viktor's speeding boards. The crowd let out an enormous gasp of relief and the Muggleborn students leapt to their feet and started cheering.

The champions then made the boards go to the far end of the lake and swept round in a power curve creating a huge wave. They came back in line abreast, touched another rune each and the boards began to leave a coloured trail, the same colour as their suits. Still travelling at about 40mph began to weave in-between each other creating a plait pattern. They were very close to each other and the crowd were again holding their breath as the champions, with their hostages on their shoulders, sped towards them leaving a pretty 100 yard long coloured pattern in the water. They sped directly toward the platform they started out on and just as they were about to crash into it, the crowd gasped and the Champions took half a step back. This raised the front of the board to just above the edge of the platform so that all four boards mounted the platform and came to a stop.

The Champions and the hostages all raised their arms in success, with huge smiles on their faces, relieved that nothing had gone wrong. The crowd, including the judges were all on their feet shouting, clapping and obviously very appreciative of the performance. It had been boring until the boards with the champions and hostages popped out of the water. Even the MerPeople were on the surface warbling and clapping.

All four Champions obviously got top marks.

 **Chapter. 6. Harry figures Dumbledore out.**

Harry had estimated that there were about 200 MerPeople in the lake and wrote a letter to Sirius. A week later a large package arrived and the Champions levitated it out to the lake. Dumbledore followed, his curiosity working overtime.

"Headmaster, can you call the MerPeople here and then translate for me?" Harry asked. "Certainly Harry." Dumbledore then placed a hand on the water and made some low volume shrieking sounds. A number of heads popped up out of the surface of the water.

"Please tell them I have a gift for them in thanks for their co-operation with the task." Harry said. Dumbledore translated for him. The Chieftain approached and smiled at Harry and the Champions.

Viktor opened the crate and handed Harry two knives. One was the same as the dive knives that Harry had already given the Merpeople but the other was a top of the range kitchen knife for preparation of food, gutting fish etc. Harry described the use of these knives and how to keep them sharp. He also told them that they were stainless steel and would never rust. There were 200 of each, more than enough for the whole village.

The faces of the MerPeople were wreathed in wide smiles. Dumbledore told Harry that the Chief had said that they did not have anything like these knives and had always had trouble preparing food with bits of stone etc. They were in Harry's debt. "NO, no headmaster I will not have any debt owed to me, I can only ask for their friendship to all the students and to never be persuaded to join Tom's ranks. Dumbledore translated this and got a positive answer. The MerPeople then took all the knives and disappeared below the water.

A few weeks later Hermione found Harry looking very pensive in the Common room. "What's up Harry?" she asked.

"Dumbledore." He replied. "It suddenly occurred to me that he has been very controlling in my life and all this time I thought it was just a great man being considerate to his students. But I now realise that is probably not the case." "What do you mean Harry, Dumbledore is a great man, a powerful Wizard." Hermione enquired.

"OK," Harry said.

"First; he dropped me off at the Dursley's at about midnight in the first days of November. They didn't find me until they got up about 7am. I'm surprised I didn't die of hypothermia. I am sure that he knew of the abuse that they perpetrated on me, but I cannot prove it.

Two: How many times has Molly Weasley been to platform 9¾ in her life and she appears to 'forget' it, and where it is, just as I am panicking, having not been told where it is by Hagrid. Besides that, there are Floo connections on the station that they could use straight from the Burrow. Let's face it, hundreds of strangely dressed people traipsing through the main concourse of Kings Cross Station would certainly be noticed, especially if they all disappeared into the same area.

Three; I am certain Ron came looking for me, claiming everywhere was full but there have been plenty of spare seats every time I have been on the Express.

Four; 1st year. How is it that the ' _Great and Powerful Wizard'_ Dumbledore did not know that Voldemort was possessing Quirrel. I have heard a rumour that Dumbledore actually sent Quirrel on his 'sabbatical'. Did he know Mouldysnot was in Albania? Why did he direct Quirrel to go there? I can't connect the Troll to Dumbledore in any way; that must have been Quirrel.

Fifth; why did Dumbledore go to the Ministry that particular night and why in Merlin's name did he fly a broomstick? He could at least check the veracity of the message or even gone by Floo. He could have apparated there and back from his office as he is the only one able to apparate through Hogwarts wards.

Sixth; 2nd year. The Basilisk had been out of the chamber 50 years previous when Tom was here. How come the ' _great and mighty Wizard'_ Dumbledore did not figure out that it was a Basilisk in all that time, you worked it out in a few months. Mandrakes _MUST_ be in season _somewhere_ on Earth, why didn't he request a supply via the ICW which he is head of? But he let those petrified students, including you, miss all those weeks of lessons. With the exception of yourself their education _must_ have been damaged. It seems strange that the hat and Fawkes came to my aid, why not him? Why did he allow almost the whole student body vilify me due to being a Parselmouth? Don't even start me on Lockheart.

Seventh; 3rd year. This was just a piss-take. The only good thing was Lupin and eventually finding out my Godfather is innocent. He ignored me all year.

Eighth; This year. The stupid Tournament. I am fairly sure that with his power and connections he could have prevented my competing somehow, but he didn't even try. I think I've screwed it up a bit for him though; I certainly hope so. How did the ' _great and mighty Wizard'_ not know that the DADA professor wasn't his lifelong friend Moody?

On top of all that the _Great Wizard_ Dumbledore sealed my parents will, did not inform me of my inheritance and I am hugely suspicious of his involvement in Sirius being sent to Azkaban without a trial, considering he was the Chief Warlock and basically the Chief Justice at the time.

How come he not only employs, but protects a death eater whose teaching abilities would not be allowed in any muggle school at all. Shit, I doubt he would be allowed to teach the way he does in ANY school. I think he would even be arrested for child abuse.

Year on year he has insisted that I return to Durskaban for more abuse, he is interfering in every part of my life. I would have preferred to live in a dustbin for the summer. What do you think Hermione?" He turned and looked at his best friend who was staring at him with wide horrified eyes, her mouth hanging open and tears flooding down her cheeks.

"Ohh, Merlin, I'm sorry Hermione, that was just far too much to dump on you all at once." Harry said, wrapping his arms around her and rubbing her back. He _really_ liked the feel of Hermione in his arms.

"No, Harry, I'm glad you did, I sort of understand now, and although it will take me some time to process it all. Much as it galls me to say it, I think you are right in your estimation of Dumbledore." Hermione responded, clinging to him. "Let's talk about this tomorrow and probably every day this week. You need to do this to get it out of your system so that you can think about it more clearly. Whatever and whenever, I am here for you Harry."

"Thank you Hermione, you really are the best of friends." Harry said. Ron burst into their private space just then, totally oblivious (or was he) to the clearly private conversation that Harry and Hermione were having. "How about a game of chess Harry?" Ron blurted, grabbing Harry's forearm and dragging him over towards the table with his chess set on. Harry strained his head round to look back at Hermione, she was gone. "Hermione," Harry said. "Who? Ohh don't mind her, we've got chess to play." Ron said. Harry felt his temper rise, but this was his best mate, first friend. (Or was it arranged?) So, he forcibly suppressed his anger and started to play chess. He wasn't in any mood to continue though so he purposely made some stupid moves and lost.

"I'm going to bed Ron, Goodnight." Harry said. "But it's only 9:45, come back and play a few more games." Ron cajoled. "No Ron, I'm tired. See you tomorrow." Harry responded. He missed the narrowed eyes and glare that Ron gave his back and the stairs to the girls Dorm.

\- # - -

The Champions were being shown the incipient maze with Bagman saying, "The task will start at dusk on the first Saturday of June." "DUSK?" Harry shouted, "are you all fucking morons? Even in the daylight no one will be able to see what's going on in there. When it gets dark and there are no floodlights, no one will be able to see their hand in front of their face. WE wouldn't be able to see ANYTHING AT ALL in there. Change the time so that we at least will be able to see what we are doing. Dickhead." The other three Champions said "What he said." in unison pointing at Harry, the four Champions then left in disgust, Bagman spluttering about shouldn't talk to him like that; what are floodlights?; and the Quiddich pitch being returned to its original condition after the task. "Let's go to our meeting room." Harry said. They all agreed.

"This is going to be difficult to reduce to a laughable farce that the crowd can enjoy. Can you imagine how boring it will be to watch a damn big cube of hedges for an hour, not knowing what is going on with us inside?" Harry moaned, "And we only have four weeks to make a plan. I'll Owl Sirius to see if he has any ideas." He said, addressing the Champions and all their friends, all murmuring disparaging remarks about the Ministry and Headmasters.

"What if we bring in Muggle cartoon characters and have a visualisation of them follow you around above the hedge tops?" Hermione asked, "anyone know a spell for that sort of thing?"

"We will need pictures of the characters," Cedric said, "then we will have to research to find a spell to suite our purposes."

Hermione sent a letter home asking her parents to supply pictures of any cartoon characters that they felt looked humorous. Harry sent a letter to Sirius outlining the idea and asking if he or Remus had any knowledge of a spell for them. Hedwig took both letters.

Three days later Hedwig arrived back with two thick envelopes tied to her leg and landed rather heavily in front of Harry and Hermione at Breakfast. Harry quickly removed the letters, handed them to Hermione and grabbed a load of bacon. Breaking the bacon into owl bite sizes, he murmured very appreciative noises to his obviously very tired owl. He kept feeding her until she refused, gave her a drink of warm tea and got up to carry her to the owlery for her to sleep and recover. He arrived in the Common room about 5 minutes after Hermione had got there. "Is Hedwig OK Harry?" Hermione asked. "She will be. I stuffed her full of bacon, took her to the owlery and put her on her perch. She was asleep before I could get down to the floor."

"Let's get Luna and read the letters from Mum, Dad and Sirius." Hermione said. "OK," Harry said, "You take your Mum and Dad's and I'll take Sirius'" "Yes, take notes and then we'll compare and merge them. Then we'll show the rest of the gang and have their input as well." Hermione stated. Harry nodded and started reading Sirius' letter. The three of them commandeered an empty classroom at the end of lessons and went through the letters and suggestions. After about two hours of reading and discussion they came to a consensus that they could show the others.

Dan and Emma Granger had written about small neon haired figures called 'Trolls'. They had also described and drawn 'Pacmen' from an early computer game and the idea of periscopes; magical of course. Sirius said that big, glowing, shockingly coloured arrows showing their position in the maze might be good. He had also written down the instructions for a spell that might achieve something like what was required. There were other things in both letters but those stood out for potential of humour. Most of it just wasn't possible and some of it would be downright boring

Harry, Hermione and Luna joined the other Champions and their friends in ' _their'_ room after dinner and everyone read the letters, the notes and the final consensus produced by Harry, Hermione and Luna.

"These are really good," said Fleur "though I have never seen the like before, anyone else?" she queried. The response was a general negative and all their attention was then focused on the spell and how to modify it to create the desired effect. The problem came in several parts. How to create the animated illusions of Trolls and/or Pacmen. How to create the periscopes so that they could see through them. These would only be used at the start to find each other and once found the Trolls would take over. They finally discarded the Pacmen to concentrate on the Fraggles. They also decided that the Magic that they required was probably too advanced for them to master it in time.

The four Champions went to Professor McGonagall's office and knocked on the door. Professor McGonagall opened the door, surprised to see them all there. "Come in," she said, "what can I do for you all."

Harry was again the spokesperson. "We have encountered a problem that we need help with and we were hoping that you and Professor Flitwick would render some assistance. Before you say you cannot, this problem is nothing to do with completing the task, it is all for the crowd of spectators."

"Wait a moment," Professor McGonagall said and stepped over to her fireplace. "Filius Flitwick, she announced throwing a bit of floo powder into the fireplace. Professor Flitwick's head appeared in the flames "Yes, Minerva, What can I do for you?" he asked. "Please come through Filius, the Champions require our assistance." Flitwick stepped through the floo at once stating that they could not as it was against the rules. "Harry tells me it is nothing to do with completing the task but solely for the spectators." Minerva told him. "Now Harry tell us what the problem is and we will see if we can help. I really loved your performances in the first two tasks." "Me too." Flitwick said.

Harry brought out the letter, notes, drawings and other paperwork that the group had generated, then launched into what was required and the fact that they would not be a be able to master it without advanced help in time for the task. 45 minutes later Minerva and Filius agreed that as it was totally for the spectators, they would help. To this end McGonagall said that she and Flitwick would work on the spell first and then on the cartoon characters.

 **Chapter 7. The Third Task.**

McGonagall and Flitwick had successfully modified the spell that Sirius had submitted and trained all four Champions in the use of it. It actually involved runes so Professor Babbling had been brought in. The three Professors had created four rune tablets which were to be stuck to the top of the four baseball caps Harry had manages to get that the professors had worked on. Three blue ones and a pink one for Fleur. The periscopes were just a surprisingly simple spell which projected a copy of the user's eyes with eyelids up above their heads to the required height and a small fillip made the projected eyes larger. The Champions had tried all this and Fleur added a little special to hers and all four were pleased with the results.

There was still a week or so to go before the third task and the four Champions were practicing with the spells and what they had planned.

Harry spoke up a few days before the task "I am worried about what will happen when we get to the cup. Mouldynut's plan was for the cup to be a portkey to transport me to somewhere in order for him to carry out a ritual to get a new body. I get the strongest feeling that this will still happen, so I want you three to let me take the cup."

"No way," the three shouted together, "we all go," continued Cedric forcefully with nods from Fleur and Viktor. "We go ready for trouble." Viktor stated with nods from Fleur and Cedric. "If it doesn't happen then we will land at the winner's podium together." Fleur said. "That's settled then." Cedric and Viktor said together. "But . . ;" said an over whelmed Harry, "I don't deserve friends like you, you are the best, I'm so grateful." Fleur put her arm around Harry's shoulder and gave him a squeeze.

"Fleur, I can feel something at the edge of my mind and it concerns you. What is it?" Harry enquired. "That's my Allure Harry, I do not understand how you are able to resist unless you already Love someone." She replied. "I don't _think_ I Love anyone Fleur. I like Hermione and Luna a lot but I don't know anything about Love, I probably wouldn't recognise it if it came and booted me up the backside." Harry said. Fleur sighed "You will find out Harry, you will find out."

\- # - -

The day of the third task dawned clear and bright and everyone was informed at breakfast that the task would start, as the Champions had dictated, at 2pm straight after lunch which would be served at 12noon.

At 1:45pm the four chums were waiting at the entrance to the maze. Bagman greeted them and announced them to the crowd which was larger than the ones at the first and second tasks. It seemed word had spread about the entertainment. "Now then, what you have to do is get to the middle of the maze where the cup will be waiting for the first of you to take it. That lucky Champion will be transported to the winners' podium." Bagman instructed them. "It will not be easy as there are obstacles in the maze for you to get past. The Champion with the highest points was supposed to go first with a lead of minutes representing the lead in points you have over the next. However, there are only a few points difference between all of you and I dare say that on your performances, which I have enjoyed immensely, of the first tasks, you would probably all go in together no matter what I say." "You have got that right." Said Harry. "Go ahead then, in your own time." Bagman said resignedly.

The Champions stood facing the crowd and waved. The crowd gave a tremendous cheer. The chums then got out their hats and put them on, separated by about 3feet from each other and tapped the Rune stone with their wands. Coloured lights shot out of the rune stone to about 15feet high, just above the height of the hedges. At the top of the coloured lights a figure formed.

Fleur's was a cartoon caricature of herself wearing a traditional French dress which emphasised her slightly exaggerated breasts, was low cut showing lots of cleavage and her short skirt had slits up the sides to her hips. She had a shock of blonde hair and her eyes were cartoon large with long lashes, but the same beautiful blue colour of her own eyes.

Viktor's was again a caricature of himself with a shock of dark brown hair and large dark brown eyes. He was wearing lederhosen and an appropriate hat.

Cedric's caricature had a shock of light brown, almost blonde, hair and large hazel brown eyes. He was wearing a really 'out there' colourful Morris dancer's outfit complete with bells and ribbons.

Harry's had a huge shock of extremely untidy black hair and huge emerald green eyes. He had an iridescently multicoloured jesters outfit complete with the three pronged hat, with a bell on each end, perched precariously on top of his hair, and had silly long shoes also with bells on the toes.

The crowd roared their approval and the Champions entered the maze.

They ran in and followed the path, turning left, on for a bit and turned right screeching to a halt as they did so. Ten feet in front of them was one of Hagrid's Blast Ended Screwts. Harry quickly said the spell that showed the image of the Screwt above the top of the hedge.

"The only vulnerable spot on these things is the belly." Harry informed them. "Let's try to levitate it out of the maze and have someone else deal with it," he said.

"Wingardium Leviosa." They all intoned together with a swish and flick of their wands. The Screwt tried to hold onto the ground by digging its crablike claws into the ground but the power of the four Champions was too much and it rose up above the top of the hedges. Fleur, Viktor and Cedric kept it aloft while Harry cast a banishment charm on it and it soared off outside the maze. The crowd cheered.

They continued on the path to the right and Cedric, who was in the lead, suddenly found himself upside down. His caricature was also upside down, hair hanging down and hands gripping onto the hat, the crowd was laughing. Cedric continued and suddenly found himself the right way up. His caricature righted itself, hair flopping down comically and eyes rotating. The caricature shook itself and was again the silly looking Morris Dancer.

The other three went through the same process. Viktor managed it without dropping anything, Fleur's character had problems with her skirt inverting and showing all her legs. There was a cheer from the crowd but nothing was shown as the caricature was sexless. Her hair was spectacular however, hanging down about six feet. Harry's caricature hat went mental and started hitting him with the bells and clutching onto his ears and nose to stop falling off. They all got through and the crowd applauded.

The Champions then arrived at a crossroads and started a fake argument exaggerated by their caricatures which had the crowd in stitches. Cedric suddenly held up a hand to stop the argument and pulled the others in for a whispered conference. He then gestured with his wand and a huge brass periscope binocular grew from his hands to above the hedges. The lenses looking over the hedges were an enormous two foot diameter image of his eyes. Fleur caught on and replicated the periscope only hers had iridescent blue irises and huge eyelashes which blinked. As they both looked around searching for a clue as to which way to go, the periscope eyes caught sight of each other and opened wider than possible in ' _shock_ '. They seemed to agree on a direction and the periscopes vanished in favour of the caricatures.

Harry actually did a 'point me' spell without letting the crowd know and they all rushed down the appropriate pathway. They were in such a rush they actually ran through/over a Boggart without the thing actually getting an illusion of what they fear the most in front of them. This was somehow transmitted over the top of the hedges which had the crowd laughing again, especially the sight of the Boggart getting groggily upright and rushing off in fright.

They met a Manticore which they levitated to the top of the hedges so that it had no purchase for its claws to run. They then conjured steel 'goalposts' and fastened its pincers, legs and tail to them. They ran on leaving the beast raging and crying in frustration.

Looking around again with the periscope binoculars showed them the general direction to the centre so they took it. They tried to burn a path through the hedge but the spells on it were too strong and they couldn't make a hole big enough for long enough to get through, so they took the best looking path that was indicated by their previous viewing.

They met a Sphynx who started to demand that they all answered riddles. Harry was feeling rather belligerent by now, so he said "What gives you the right to ask us questions or give us riddles so that we may pass?" The Sphynx looked nonplussed and stammered "That's what I do, it's what I was brought here for." "Well," said Harry, "I'm changing that, your job here is completed, go home." And with that the sphinx vanished. The crowd let out a mighty 'OOOHH' and applauded.

They reached the entrance to the centre of the maze and stood there looking at the Cup which was sitting on a stone plinth in the middle and being guarded by an Acromantula with a body about 12 feet long and 8 foot legs. Its fangs were about a foot long and dripping with venom. It glared at them and started towards them. "Blasting curses," ordered Viktor and 4 bright red curses hit the thing straight in the mouth parts. Most of the blasting effects got through the beasts naturally Magical resistance and its head disappeared in an explosion of goo. The rest of the body was flung back to the other side of the area.

They again stood there looking at the Cup and another argument started from Harry who was sure that the Cup was again a Portkey to somewhere dangerous and didn't want the others to go into that danger. The argument went on for some minutes and as the others were heatedly discussing all the ramifications Harry bolted for the Cup. He left the others behind, snatched the Cup from the plinth and disappeared in a shower of colour. At the claiming of the Cup the hedges simply vanished and the three Champions were left to walk over to the podium.

"Where's Harry," Fleur demanded. She actually wanted to punch his face in at what she perceived as his traitorous duplicity.

Dumbledore approached, "He took the Cup so he should have reappeared on the podium." He replied, looking around.

"He was right!" Cedric exclaimed. "The Cup _was_ a Portkey to somewhere and it is probably dangerous." "Oh Merde." Moaned Fleur and I thought he had betrayed us." She started crying into Viktor's chest.

\- # - -

Harry landed in the Graveyard. Wormtail tied him to the Riddle tombstone, dragged the enormous cauldron over and started the chant.

"Bones of the Father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son." A stream of grayish dust issued from the grave at Harry's feet and floated into the cauldron.

"Flesh – of the servant – willingly given – you will revive your Master." Wormtail cut off his hand and it fell into the cauldron.

Harry took Wormtail's pained distraction to suck a load of snot from his nose to his mouth and spat it into the cauldron. He would have pissed in it, only he was tied up. There was a quiet flapping sound above and Harry looked up to see Hedwig gliding in with something in her claws. Her aim was spot on and the live mouse hit the middle of the liquid in the cauldron without Wormtail being any the wiser. "Thank you Hedwig." Harry whispered.

"Blood of the enemy forcibly taken." "No, Wormtail, you can take my blood freely given." Harry shouted. "No," Wormtail moaned in pain, "Forcibly taken – you will resurrect your foe."

Wormtail gave the ingredients time to mix and then dropped the disgusting baby shaped thing into the cauldron.

About 5 minutes later something disturbed the surface of the liquid and a head rose out of it, then the body. To say it was a disgusting nightmare would have been a massive understatement. It got out of the cauldron and Harry took a look, he felt like throwing up. It was a sort of pale grey colour with patches of short fur, the arms were a little shorter than what would be expected ending in almost human hands. The head was bald but the ears were high up and somewhat larger than normal. It had slightly prominent teeth and the slit, snake like nostrils had a stream of snot coming out of them. The entity was furious. "My robe Wormtail," it said in a high sort of squeaky voice, "and my Wand."

"Harry Potter," squeaked Voldemort, "now I have you."

"Master," whimpered Wormtail, blood steadily leaking from his wrist. "What?" Moldysnot squeaked, "Oh, very well, here." And muttered some words in a language Harry could not understand. A silver hand grew from Wormtail's severed wrist. Wormtail held it up inspecting it and testing its movements. "Thank you Master." Voldemouse grabbed Wormtail's arm and pressed his wand into the middle of the Dark Mark. A few minutes later a number of black clouds arrived and suddenly about two dozen Death Eaters were standing there and quickly formed a semicircle around Moldynuts. Wormtail was still gasping on the ground from the pain caused by MoldyRiddle calling his slaves to him.

He was displeased with some and crucio'd them, berated all of them for being cowards and not looking for him. They all had masks on but Harry could tell that they were somewhat horrified at the appearance of the figure that they realised was Lord Voldemort.

Wormtail eventually recovered enough to take his first look at his Master. His eyes widened to a ridiculous size and he gasped in revulsion. "What is it Wormtail. Why are you looking at me like that?" Lucius stepped forward and conjured a mirror for his Master to look in. "AAARRGH," squeaked the abomination, "what happened?" he rounded on Wormtail, "What did you do to the potion you worthless ingrate. You got it wrong, you failed me!"

"No, Master, I did everything as you instructed me to do." Wormtail cowered before Voldesnot. "Crucio." Wormtail screamed and squirmed on the ground for some 30 seconds. Voldemort looked as if the Magic use of the last 10 minutes or so had taken quite a bit out of him. He did not look very happy at all.

He turned to Harry and removed the bindings, then he levitated Harry's wand up to Harry. As soon as Harry had hold of his wand, MouseyMort intoned "Crucio." Harry went to his knees in pain but he was surprised that the curse didn't hrt as much as he had imagined it would, so he shouldered it aside and cast Ginny's favourite Bat Bogey hex with a twist he thought of, **Bates Vampirus Mocus"** which surprised Moldy enough for it to connect. The Bogey bats with really huge fangs coming from Moldy's nose were impressive and the D.E's were standing there gobsmacked. How could this be happening to the greatest Dark Wizard of all time?

Harry took the opportunity and bolted for the Cup hoping it was a return Portkey. Several green, red, yellow and purple curses flew over his head as he dove for the Cup. The moment he grasped the handle he felt the tug on his navel and disappeared.

 **Chapter 8. Back to Hogwarts and end of term.**

It had been three quarters of an hour since harry had disappeared. Hermione, Luna and the other Champions were distraught in various degrees, not knowing where Harry was or if he was still alive. Suddenly there was a crash and a scream from the podium and there was the mess that was Harry Potter, bleeding heavily from the cut on his arm.

"HARRY," Hermione and Luna screamed, quickly followed by Fleur and mutters by Viktor and Cedric.

"Harry," Dumbledore gasped, "Poppy, quickly, Harry's hurt." They both quickly got to Harry's side and nudged Hermione and Luna out of the way so that Poppy could treat the cut on his arm and the grazes caused by landing on the wooden platform. The Champions stood around the group waiting for news of Harry's condition.

When Poppy had finished her ministrations, she stood and pronounced Harry fit enough but would need a good night's sleep.

"Headmaster," Harry called. "Yes Harry, where did you go?" Dumbledore responded.

The Portkey took me to a graveyard and Peter Pettigrew tied me to a gravestone with Riddle's name on it. There was a huge cauldron and he performed a ritual about Bone of the father, Flesh of the servant and blood of the enemy. When he finished the chant and adding the ingredients he dropped this disgusting lump of something about the size of a baby into it and a few minutes later Voldemort comes up out of the liquid. He looked worse than the thing Peter threw into the cauldron. He gave Peter a new silver hand and called his followers, Lucius Malfoy was one of them. He released me, gave me my wand and crucio'd me, but it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. So I managed to fight through the pain and cursed him with Ginny's Bat Bogey Hex, the bats were really impressive. This distracted him and the D.E's enough for me to dash for the Cup and as I had hoped it was a return Portkey."

"NO, he's lying," Fudge shouted, "He-who-must-not-be-named cannot be back, he died in 1981, I won't hear of it. He's a delusional little snot. He hates Lucius, so makes up damaging stories about him, Lucius is an upstanding Wizard." He threw the bag of gold onto the platform, called his Auror guard and marched off to the gates.

Harry was escorted to Gryphindor tower by Hermione, Luna and the Champions. A meal was brought for him by the Elves and after eating it was marched up to his bed by Hermione and Luna. They waited while he changed into his pyjamas in the bathroom and then made sure he stayed in bed until he fell asleep. Luna then went back to the Ravenclaw tower and Hermione to her dorm.

Harry woke the next day with his thoughts full of Hermione and Luna and his lower region sporting a raging hard-on. 'They are my best friends I can't have thoughts like that about them.' He thought desperately, 'besides I'm only 14, I shouldn't be having those sort of thoughts anyway.' So he brought to mind all sorts of things to help reduce the tumescence. It took a while, as something seemed to be fighting back to keep his thoughts very randily on the two girls.

He finally won and was sweating with the effort, so he showered, dressed and went down to breakfast meeting Hermione in the Common room on the way.

After breakfast Harry sent a letter to Griphook instructing him to transfer G1,000 to each of the other champions and send deposit slips back with Hedwig.

This was the day that the other schools departed for home, so the Champions and their friends congregated in 'their' room to say their goodbyes. Harry called the other three Champions over to him and said "I promised something to you at the start of this farcical year, and I keep my promises." He gave each of them an envelope, which they opened and on seeing the deposit slips gasped. "No Harry, we would not hold you to that promise, you must take it back."

"That is your rightful winnings for competing in this travesty. It is non returnable and I have instructed Gringotts of that. You three are among my dearest friends and I feel richer for having come to know you. I am just SO pleased that we all came out of it alive, there will be no further discussion of it." Harry stated with a tone of finality that all in the room could feel. Fleur hugged Harry, eyes leaking tears and muttering in French. Cedric and Viktor shook his hand and clapped him on the back in thanks.

Harry next sought out Fred and George. "Oy, you two trouble makers." He said. "Us Harry?" they said together, "why would you call us trouble makers when all we want to do is make people laugh?" "You two _are_ trouble, but you are two of the finest people that I have the privilege to know. Are you still planning to open that joke shop?"

"Yes Harry, we have been working on a list of items that we will need to stock and figuring out a way of getting funding to create the stuff." George said. "Funding is not a problem," Harry said, "as I see it you are the most important people around, you give people laughter, cheer and hope. Now for a 5% interest in your business, a promise that you will do as well in your OWL's as you possibly can and make things that will help in the fight against Death Eaters, I present you with G1,000." and he held out the bag containing the said G1,000.

The twins stared at Harry glancing back and forth from his face to the bag of gold, completely speechless. "Harry, _REALLY?_ This is a dream come true," they said together (how do they do that?) Harry thought. "and we fully agree with your terms. This will help us create our dreams. Thank you so much brother."

"Wow," Harry said, "I like being a brother to you, but don't treat me like you do Ron." "No Harry, you are a respected partner, we won't try our products out on you . . . much." they said with huge grins.

The remainder of the term passed by with scandalous reporting from Skeeter that Harry was an attention seeking little prat claiming that he-who-must-not-be-named has returned when everyone knows he has gone and Dumbledore had gone senile if he believed Potter.

Then they were on the Hogwarts Express to London with all the students excited about the upcoming Holiday; except Harry. Harry was miserable and depressed at the mere thought of spending ANY time with the Dursleys but he was powerless to change his situation. He determined that he would do his chores as quickly and quietly as possible and hope that they just ignore him. Colin had given Harry a photo of Harry just as he was 'defeating' Amethyst, complete with coloured lights etc. Harry hoped that showing Dudley the photo, he would leave Harry alone.

They arrived in London, got off the train and Hermione dragged Harry over to her parents. "Mum, Dad, this is Harry Potter, I've told you about him in my letters. Harry this is my Mum and Dad." "Hello Harry" they said.

"I'm very honoured to meet you Mr & Mrs Granger." Harry said as he shook their hands. He took a glance over to see the Dursleys being confronted by Remus, Mad-eye and Tonks. Vernon's face was an unhealthy puce colour and Harry could tell that his hopes of a quiet summer had just been thrown out of the window.

"It was very nice to meet you Mr & Mrs Granger. I must go, my relatives are going to be anxious to get home." "But not you Harry?" Hermione asked/stated. "No, Hermione, not me. I am ordered to go to Durskaban for _'my safety'_. Are you allowed to write me this year?"

"No Harry, Dumbledore thinks owls, especially Hedwig, may get tracked." Hermione answered miserably with tears crawling down her cheeks.

"Never mind Hermione, I'll see you on the first Saturday of September just here or on the train. Have a good summer and don't worry about me, I'll be ok." Harry tried to reassure her. They hugged and went their separate ways.

True to Harry's prediction the Dursleys piled on the chores, abused him verbally but never actually hit him, which was an improvement on the previous summer. Harry showed Dudley the photo describing what was supposed to have happened and elaborating on the size, weight and length of Amethyst and how dangerous the Hungarian Horntail was. But he, Harry, had defeated her. Dudley paled at this and ran off to his room. He didn't cause any trouble for Harry that summer.

Harry worked hard but very often found that a chore had been completed before he got to it. This puzzled him but was grateful anyway. Vernon was almost apoplectic at the ease that Harry was getting the chores done.

About two weeks after arriving at 4 Privet Drive, Harry finally found out how this was being accomplished. He caught a glimpse of a small green body with big ears. "Dobby!" Harry said. Pop. "Yes Master Harry Potter sir, what can Dobby do for yous?" Dobby said with a deep bow. "Arrgh, don't let the Dursleys see you." Harry squeaked. "They is Muggles Master Harry Potter sir, only great wizards like yourself can see Dobby; they cannot." Dobby said.

It was the end of the day so Harry told Dobby to meet him in Harry's bedroom. "Yes Master Harry Potter sir, Dobby will do that as soon as Dobby finishes this job." Pop. "Harry was transfixed by the revelation of Dobby doing the chores, his thought going a mile a minute and a smile started to grow on his face at the possibilities. He washed his hands and climbed the stairs to his bedroom.

Dobby was already there looking around the room in disgust. "This is no place for the great Master Harry Potter sir to live." he growled. He started clicking his fingers and waving his hands around. Suddenly all the rubbish in the room disappeared, the bed, chair and desk repaired themselves. The mattress on the bed was like new and the linens were clean and fresh. "Wow Dobby, this is great. Can I ask a favour of you please?" Harry asked.

"The great master Harry Potter sir is asking and saying please to Dobby." Dobby said with tears streaming down his face. "Dobby will be pleased to do whatever the great master Harry Potter sir is asking Dobby to do."

"These _people_ do not feed me enough and I am starving, can you get me a bit of food please?" Harry asked. Dobby got a stricken look on his face at the idea of the great master Harry Potter sir not being fed. POP.

Pop. A feast appeared on Harry's newly repaired desk and Harry's eyes nearly fell out of his skull. "Dobby has brought The great master Harry Potter sir a bit of food." "A BIT?" Harry goggled. "That's enough to feed three Dudley's, or maybe two." Harry said in reflection.

Harry took hold of himself and turned to Dobby. "Dobby, my friend, thank you for all this food. I have a proposition for you. I want to play some pranks on the Dursleys, will you help?" A huge grin spread over Dobby's face, "Oh yes great master Harry Potter sir, Dobby will be very pleased to help you in your pranks."

"Great, while we talk would you please join me in having dinner? I won't be able to eat this lot anyway." Harry asked Dobby.

"The great master Harry Potter sir is asking Dobby to sit and eat with him You is truly a great Wizard master Harry Potter sir. Dobby is honoured. Us's will plot while we eat." Dobby enthused.

They sat and started helping themselves to the food. "Dobby, I am somewhat ignorant of House Elves." Harry started. "I take it that you like to work?"

"Oh yes great master Harry Potter sir," Dobby responded, "Elves live to work, but more, Elves WORK to LIVE. Elves must work or we start to fade away."

"Merlin," Harry exclaimed, "what a situation. Ok Dobby, I reckon that if the chores that Vernon gives me, get done with almost no effort on my part, it will drive him up the wall. It may even give him a happy heart attack; the great fat tub of whale blubber. What I propose is that when he tells me what to do, I will snap my fingers and you, unseen of course, do the work. The quicker the better and by Magic if you can without the Ministry detecting it."

Dobby's eyes lit up and he had the widest smile that Harry had ever seen. "Dobby has already enjoyed this summer with all the bits of work Dobby has been able to do for the great master Harry Potter sir and this will makes it better. Dobby is in awe of the great master Harry Potter sir's plan."

"Jeez Dobby there is no need for the long title, just call me Harry." Harry pleaded. Dobby looked a bit dismayed, "Master Harry Potter sir?" he suggested. "Less." Harry said. "Master Harry sir?" Dobby was starting to look really distressed. "I would rather it be 'Harry Potter sir' if you are unable to bring yourself to reduce it any further Dobby." "Dobby will try Harry Potter sir." Dobby said with a sort of beaten look about him. "That's great Dobby. That makes me happier my friend." Harry said. Dobby's demeanour suddenly brightened. "If it makes Harry Potter sir happies then Dobby will do it."

About half of the feast had been demolished much to Harry's surprise. "I am stuffed Dobby, will this food go to waste now?" "Oh no Harry Potter sir," Dobby answered, "Dobby will put it in stasis for later use." "I just thought," said Harry, "If I don't eat the Dursley's food then I don't need to cook for them. That will drive Aunt Petunia up the wall as she will have to cook instead." Both Harry and Dobby laughed at that.

The rest of the summer passed much better for Harry and Dobby was ecstatic with all the work he was doing. Hedwig came and went as she wished. Harry had done a lot of reading of Wizarding Law books, books on the Wizengamot and a wide variety of other equally serious books. Harry also found that the more he read the faster he was able to read, now reading a book in a few hours instead of all day. He also thought and dreamed a lot of Hermione and strangely, Luna. He had nightmares of a snake faced, snot dribbling monster, but they didn't last long, his dreams of Hermione and Luna dispelled them.

Because of the reading and the deep thoughts that Harry had been able to do due to ' _The Dobby Effect'_ he had decided on several courses of action but would no be able to initiate any until he had a chance to talk to Hermione and Luna. Harry still could not understand why his mind kept including Luna in his thoughts and decisions.

Vernon, as Harry had surmised was constantly angry and even tried to punch Harry once. Dobby prevented that happening with a Magical barrier that stopped Vernon's fist as though he had hit the wall, with the same amount of pain. He didn't try that again. Vernon didn't have the hoped for heart attack but Harry thought it came close a few times. Petunia was as predicted beside herself with frustration.

The night before Harry was returning to Hogwarts he called Dobby. "Dobby, you have made this summer the best I have ever had my friend. I will be packing now to be ready for tomorrow." Dobby clicked his fingers and all Harry's stuff was sorted, folded and packed in his trunk. "Dobby will bring Harry Potter sir breakfast at 7:30 and after breakfast Dobby will clean up and take Harry Potter sir's trunk to Hogwarts so that Harry Potter sir doesn't have to carry it."

"Dobby, you are a most incredible friend. Thank you so much for this summer." Harry said with tears in his eyes.

"Dobby will bring breakfast and if Harry Potter sir wishes, will join Harry Potter sir for the meal before returning to Hogwarts." Dobby said with a slightly sad tone. "Harry Potter sir wishes Dobby, the most extraordinary house Elf, to join him for breakfast." and he hugged the little Elf. They hugged for a few minutes patting each others back with affection.

They did just that, but Dobby dropped Harry off at Platform 9¾ at 10:30 before popping to Hogwarts with Harry's trunk. Hedwig just took off in the general direction of Hogwarts after nibbling Harry's ear affectionately in the way of 'farewell, see you there.'

\- # - -

The end; of this story, continued in Year 5.

\- # - -

A/N. I know that this chapter covered a lot of time but it is far too short to split into two chapters. Indeed all the chapters in this story are on the short side, but seeing as I was not intending to post the story until I had finished it, the shortness of the chapters became irrelevant.

 **Chapter 9. Continuation Note.**

This story was/is meant to give some grounding for Harry's Fifth year but I got a little carried away, I hope you liked it. My story regarding Harry's fifth year is about half finished and already twice the size of this one, I will post it when I know I can complete it.

 **WARNING.** The fifth year story contains a lot of explicit sex, incest, blood and gore; Dumbledore, Ron Weasley and Snape bashing. If you are under 18 years old, this is the end of the story for you, do not read Year 5.


End file.
